This man was an Egyptian sage; he flourished before the Pharaoh. He was called Trismegistos ['thrice-great'], because he made a statement about the triad,[1] saying [that] a single deity exists in triadic form thus: "there existed an intellectual light prior to the intellectual light, and there was always a mind enlightening the mind, and its unity was nothing else; and it was a spirit containing everything. Apart from that there did not exist another god, or angel, or essence. Because he is lord and father and god of everything, and everything is under him and within him. For his word being complete and fruitful and creative, and being a child[2] in fruitful nature and fruitful water, he made the water pregnant." And having said these things, he prayed: "I adjure you, sky, wise creation of the great god; I adjure you, voice of the father, the one that he spoke first, when he firmly set the whole world; I adjure you, by his only-begotten word and by the father who contains everything, gracious, be gracious."